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Results from Monday testing of Jamaica Pond water show cyanobacteria levels more than three times higher than the maximum considered safe for people and their pets, the Boston Public Health Commission reports. Read more.

City health officials and police are trying to figure out what's causing a sharp increase in drug overdoses in Boston this year.

The Boston Public Health Commission said today the city had 32 suspected overdoses this past weekend - concentrated downtown and in East Boston and Dorchester. The same period last year saw just 8 overdoses.

In a statement, the commission said samples from street purchases by Boston Police "have not indicated more potency or drugs laced with particular potentially-fatal substances."

City officials will meet with residents tomorrow evening to discuss their plans for the Radius Specialty Hospital on Townsend Street.

The Bay State Banner reported last week the Boston Public Health Commission is thinking of using the facility for 265 beds in "closed campus" programs - participants would be bused in and out and would not be allowed to leave the Radius campus during their stays.

The Globe reports the Boston Public Health Commission is warning doctors about chikungunya after four area residents returned from Caribbean trips with it - barely a year after it first showed up in the Caribbean. The commission isn't concerned about the disease taking hold here because the kind of mosquito that spreads it doesn't live around here - it can't tolerate our winters.

The state Department of Public Health issued a consumer advisory about possible gasoline odors in 3- and 5-gallon jugs of Poland Spring bottled at the company's Framingham plant that sickened at least one person.

The state blames people who used Poland Spring bottles after Sandy to transport gasoline, then returned them to the company.

City statistics for the week ending Jan. 5 show Roxbury and Hyde Park had the highest percentage of emergency-room visits due to flu-like symptoms while Charlestown had the highest per-capita number of confirmed flu cases. The latest Boston Public Health Commission flu report shows a total of 750 confirmed flu cases city wide for this flu season - 231 of them since Dec. 31. Most are Influenza A with a small number of Influenza B cases.

On Wednesday, Mayor Menino declared a public-health emergency in part because health-care facilities are now at or near capacity. One out of four of the confirmed cases have been among people who had to be hospitalized; four people have died.

The city plans to ring the phones - more than half belonging to senior citizens - following yesterday's declaration of a public-health emergency. A transcript:

Hi. This is Dr. Anita Barry calling from the Boston Public Health Commission. Yesterday, Mayor Menino declared a public health emergency because of the high number of influenza cases in the City of Boston.

Residents who have not already been vaccinated against influenza this year are urged to get vaccinated by calling their doctor, or visiting a nearby community health center during a free vaccination clinic.

Mayor Menino made the declaration this morning based on 700 flu confirmed flu cases - compared to 70 confirmed flu cases all of last winter. Four people, all seniors, have died.

Aside from increasing efforts to get people vaccinated, the declaration is a recognition that local hospitals are now near or at capacity due to an influx of people with flu-like symptoms.

The city plans to stock community-health centers with flu vaccine and open them this weekend to provide free doses to Boston residents. See the schedule. For more details, contact the Mayor's Health Line at 617-534-5050 9 am. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, or the Mayor's 24-hour Hotline at 617-635-4500 after hours.

Brian Benoit, 40, of South Boston, faces arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on charges he stole the contents of 106 vials and syringes loaded with painkillers and sedatives in late summer, 2011, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Have you seen the new Boston Public Health Commission ads with the guy with the blood-drenched face? Boston Biker has, and is not amused:

Helmets are good, and people should wear them. But showing a kid who looks like someone took a bat to his face is not going to get more people to ride their bike, and I think we would all be better off if more people rode their bikes, with or without helmets.

The Boston Public Health Commission has notified 57 people that they received "compromised" painkillers during ambulance rides in the summer of 2011 with a now suspended paramedic - or in his ambulance.

The Boston Public Health Commission reports a mosquito sample from West Roxbury has tested positive for West Nile Virus, a couple weeks after Roslindale won this year's honors for first infected neighborhood.